June 2012 - Cricket @ BMSCE

Been almost 8 years since that day, don't know why i remembered it all of a sudden, so putting down whatever i can remember now.
Think the event name was Sangam, as fate would have it our first match was scheduled to take place at my place BMSCE, it was the place where iv whacked it around nicely a couple of times during engineering days, so things could not go wrong...at least that's what i thought anyways.
Reached there early practiced around with folks a little bit for warm up hitting a few shots here and there. The toss got done, bugger Niranjan was the captain, who had SINGLE HANDEDLY won us the ITTS cup last time around with some of the best hitting I'd seen back the, he still is the best leftie iv seen to date....those were the days🤷🏽‍♂‍. Coming back to BMSCE, I think we chose to bat first and after deliberation i was sent in open the innings (to my jubilation). The first ball i faced, bam it went flying over for a six on the offside, i was as much in disbelief as i was playing after ages in a competitive match. Felt a good touch with the borrowed MRF bat😁. Next ball same thing n hit on the football goalpost; it was declared a four while should’ve been a six. It went on that way the whole match, i might’ve scored some 30 odd and got out maybe in 4th or 5th over. What i remember even more distinctively is the bowler after getting beat up so much was sledging me on the way back and i was smiling at it all.  This "not so me" reaction is what iv remembered countless times over the years and is probably the reason why am jotting these down. We ended up losing the 3rd match by 2 runs in the 2 days that we played there and were booted out of the tournament, all other buggers managed to slip away immediately after the loss (nobody to direct my wrath at). Have not yet managed to win a cup for a long time, will hopefully change that sooner rather than later.
It was and still is a weird feeling after that first match, a sense of pride n amusement at the same time. Pride coz i managed to successfully win the match, amused coz i managed to rile up the opponent without intending to do so, being sledged was very new n even more so was my non-aggressive reaction to it.
Moral of the story - There will be people to try to bring you down on your path to potential victory, feel accomplished at your fall even though might be deep down under themselves, critique your failure - What matters is not what your opponent’s make of you, but what you make of yourself.
Be the -
best of what you can be,
best of what you can do,
best of what you are...
at the end of it all, the fiercest competitor that you can face is the person staring back at you into oblivion everyday in the mirror.

- @r(_)n👊🏽.

Movie Review - Tanhaji

Blood and dust - That's what we are. I don't know where I've heard the phrase before but that's what came to mind when jotting these lines. We are all forged in blood and eventually will become dust. No matter the positions held, no matter the accolades, no matter the good, bad or the ugly done, the one true certainty in LIFE is DEATH and the eventuality of turning into dust. We are alive and free, with what we are today and owe it all to the enormous sacrifices of our ancestors from hundreds of years ago thru to our soldiers lining along the borders to prevent any acts of invasion...A salute to every soul out there who knows that their blood will also eventually be just dust.

Tanhaji - Is one such story among infinite other brave warriors who gave their blood  in the fight against foreign invasion and ended up as dust in the pages of history.
The movie revolves around the epicenter of clash between Mughal's & Maratha's over their decades of fight to gain dominance over what we now have as India. The story here revolves around the fight between the protagonist on whom the movie is titled, Tanhaji Malusare(Ajay Devgan) - the maharashtrian military leader under Chatrapati Shivaji and the antagonist Udaybhan Singh Rathore(Saif Ali Khan) - the guard turned military representative of Aurangzeb sent to take over Kondhana. Ajay Devgan was at his serious best while for many folks Saif reminded them of Ranveer from Padmaavati.

Like most movies these days it is very CGI HEAVY, some of the action sequences are a breath of fresh air even in the midst of all that CGI, few of them are over the top(Read Bahubali) but still leaves wanting for more. Icing on the cake would be to have more pure raw action sequences to be reminiscent of those times which would make more justice to the warriors from that Era.
Even though it might seem that way but movie is not as bloody as the pages of history actually are.
Apart from few instances of arrow flying thru towards me, i did not get the feel of this being a 3D movie. Could be just me or the ambience but would've been more fun to watch the 2D version.
For folks who don't dread the sight of blood from war, you can easily watch this movie and might as well take your family, friends and kids along. Movie in all it's glory night not give an actual account of history but will nonetheless introduce you some parts which has been conveniently left out. The books we've read that was supposed to teach us history - never did impart the correct information, neither does this movie but certainly does provide a glimpse of what could have been.
An easily one time watchable movie if in a theater. Else you could always wait for it to show up at the comfort of your home later via online streaming or on some other TV channel.

- @r(_)n👊🏽.